Mohammed Saleem death: Man charged with ‘terror’ murder

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A 25-year-old Ukrainian man has been charged with the “terrorist-related” murder of Birmingham grandfather Mohammed Saleem, police say. Mr Saleem, 75, was stabbed as he walked home after prayers from a mosque in Green Lane, Small Heath, in April.

Pavlo Lapshyn, a student from Dnipropetrovsk, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday. He was arrested following two explosions near West Midlands mosques. The 25-year-old is still being questioned by detectives investigating the blasts near the mosques in Walsall and Tipton, and a third in Wolverhampton, between 22 June and 12 July.

Mr Lapshyn, who has been in the UK on a temporary work placement since 24 April, was initially arrested on Thursday. He was arrested again on suspicion of the murder of Mr Saleem on Saturday.

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Valls stands by veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Manuel Valls (2)Interior Minister Manuel Valls defended on Monday France’s ban on wearing full-face veils in public places after a police check on a veiled Muslim woman sparked riots in a Paris suburb at the weekend.

The 2010 law was brought in by conservative former president Nicolas Sarkozy and targets burqa and niqab garments that conceal the face rather than the headscarf that is more common among French Muslim women.

A police check on a couple in the southwest suburb of Trappes sparked an angry confrontation that led overnight on Friday to a police station being surrounded by several hundred people, some hurling rocks. Another building was torched in several hours of street violence that led to six arrests.

“Police did their job perfectly,” Valls told RTL radio. “The law banning full-face veils is a law in the interests of women and against those values having nothing to do with our traditions and values. It must be enforced everywhere,” he said.

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Mosque blast terror suspect released

Posted on by Bob Pitt

One of two Ukrainian men held over bomb attacks near three mosques has been released without charge. The 22-year-old was arrested by detectives investigating explosions near mosques in Walsall, Wolverhampton and Tipton between 22 June and 12 July.

Another man, aged 25, is still being questioned about the explosions and the murder of 82-year-old Mohammed Saleem. He was arrested under the Terrorism Act and on Saturday police were given an extra seven days to question him.

Police said Mr Saleem’s death formed part of the wider West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit investigation. The grandfather of 22 was stabbed in the back in Green Lane, Small Heath, in Birmingham, on his way home after attending prayers at his local mosque in April.

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Crown court date for man accused of attacking Jamia Mosque in Gillingham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A labourer accused of damaging a mosque hours after the Woolwich murder of soldier Lee Rigby will stand trial before a jury.

Andrew Grindlay, 45, of Kingswood Road, Gillingham, reiterated his intent to fight the allegations following a brief hearing before Medway magistrates today. He pleaded not guilty to two charges: burglary with intent to commit damage, and racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage.

The charges say a door frame, carpet, windows, shelves, a money box and a bookcase were all damaged at the Jamia Mosque in Canterbury Street, Gillingham, on May 22.

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The government’s silence over attacks on Muslims is worrying, and divisive

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nesrine Malik exposes the government’s double standards over terrorist attacks in the UK. She writes:

Last week, a nail bomb partially exploded at a mosque in the West Midlands – the fourth attack in two months on mosques in Britain during Friday prayers. A suspect in one of those attacks is also being questioned in connection with the killing of Mohammed Saleem, a Muslim pensioner in Birmingham, who was stabbed to death as he returned home from prayers. The police response to these attacks has been heartening, but the silence from government, and the establishment in general, has been deeply worrisome.

When Lee Rigby was murdered, politicians of every stripe scrambled to condemn and reassure. Cobra, the country’s top emergency response mechanism, was convened under the home secretary, Theresa May. David Cameron reassured Britons that “we will never buckle in the face of terrorism”. Compare this with near-silence that greeted the recent mosque attacks. Muslims have become accustomed, almost resigned, to media double standards – there is no example starker than the wildly different coverage of Rigby and Saleem’s killings. But the failure to mobilise, condemn and reassure on the part of the political class is potentially far more dangerous.

The significant (and some would say disproportionate) political and intelligence engagement in the wake of the Rigby murder wasn’t entirely for practical purposes. Strong rhetoric combined with a show of force is a necessary response on behalf of a government in order to calm and instil a sense of safety in its citizens. The same sense of duty and urgency when British Muslims come under fire has not been in evidence.

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Gloucester: Protests at court as men charged with setting fire to mosque appear

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gloucester mosque arson protestProtesters campaigning against racism waved placards outside court as two men faced charges of setting a mosque ablaze.

Clive Michael Ceronne, 37, and Ashley Henry Juggins, 20, are charged with conspiracy to commit arson on the Masjid-E-Noor mosque. Ceronne, a former security guard of Redwood Close, in Gloucester, entered no plea to the charges. Juggins, of Brooklyn Road in Cheltenham, was due to appear via videolink. But he was being transferred between prisons and his appearance was adjourned.

The pair are accused of buying lager, vodka and a petrol can of fuel from a London Road garage and using the fuel to set fire to the Muslim place of worship in Ryecroft Street. A passer-by saw the fire last month and helped put it out before severe damage was caused.

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Ray Kelly’s dalliance with the Islamophobic fringes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ali Gharib examines the past involvement of New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly, who has been suggested as a possible nominee for secretary of the Homeland Security Department, with the Clarion Project and its notoriously Islamophobic film The Third Jihad.

Daily Beast, 19 July 2013

Update:  See also “Secretary Ray Kelly? Bad for U.S. Muslims “, New York Daily News, 24 July 2013

Offenbach: Muslim youth allege police brutality

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In a new attack against German Muslims, a group of police officers targeted young Muslim worshippers after finishing their tarawih prayer last week, handcuffing and beating them severely. “We asked them for their names and papers, but they gave us no information,” Soufian D., one of the victims told Deutsch Türkisches Journal.

The incident dates back to last Wednesday when up to 15 Muslim youths of Turkish and Moroccan descent were subjected to excessive police force after leaving the tarawih prayer at a mosque in the city of Offenbach. The police officers who wanted to check the identification of the young Muslims acted in an aggressive manner and beat the youth after handcuffing them.

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Clashes in Trappes over police harassment of Muslim family

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Trappes police

About 250 people clashed with police firing tear gas in a Paris suburb on Friday, in apparent protest over enforcement of France’s ban on Islamic face veils. Four police officers were injured and six people were arrested, while a 14-year-old boy suffered a serious eye injury from a projectile, police said.

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